Friday, January 25, 2013

Bwogmetheus (Prometheus Film Visual Addendum)

In my review of Prometheus I mention how I thought there was some alignment stuff going on. In 2001: ASpace Odyssey there are clues that the monolith in the film represents the silver screen - the movie is actually referencing itself (or at least its own medium). This has to do with the stars being lined up in a vertical row at the beginning (the way the monument is) and then later changing to a horizontal orientation (via the crazy laser light scene that suddenly changes its orientation). There's a far better explanation here from an amazing film analyst named Rob Ager. You have my permission to go watch all his videos right now.

...Back? Ok. There's a couple times in Prometheus that we see planetary alignment coming into play, though I think it's poorly executed in comparison, and that way I wonder if there isn't some sort of attempt at throwing an Inception-style red herring our way. If what I've read of the film is to be believed (and I haven't read tons, mind you), it seems the original script was very different from the final product in it's main story focus. It reminds me more of some of the Aliens comics that came out years ago more than any of the other Alien movies where plots were episodic and not too-tightly tied in with the major movie story. No xenomorphs escape the planet to terrorize Earthlings - just one at the very end - and neither Ellie or David is contaminated when they leave (which we have to assume they do because we see a ship blast off). The only way it could possibly relate to the franchise is if Ellie somehow crashes on LV-Whatever-It's-Called-In-The-First-Movie and her ship was carrying a variant of the black ooze that was more advanced (not the snakelike things that killed Mr. Biology but the facehugger types), but then you'd have to wonder about why there was a Jedi pilot in that seat and not a human skeleton with a robot head. Or it could be that Weyland - in the perpetually sneakiness typical of greedy corporate types - had sent a follow-up team that investigates afterwards, possibly even finding his body and the wreckage present. It could be a sort of espionage by a Yutani corporation too, which would dovetail nicely for the future.

The possibilities are endless of course, and I think that's a combination of my lack of knowledge of the franchise in general and a film that seems to have Lost Syndrome. Sadly, I've also just learned that Mr. Abrams will be involved with the next Star Wars. Expect a bwog on that later.